If the Memphis Grizzlies have done anything this offseason, it’s one thing. They’ve proven that they’re willing to ship off virtually anybody for the right price.
Grizz fans learned this the hard way when, in extremely blindsiding fashion, Jonas Valanciunas was shipped off to New Orleans so that the Grizzlies could ultimately move up seven spots in the NBA Draft.
The move was the first of many for the Grizzlies thus far, with the running tally making reaching the number six with no end in sight. Memphis still has more assets than they know what to do with, so a couple of trades are almost guaranteed to happen.
Still, there’s an eery feeling around Memphis that anybody could go, an idea embraced by NBA Analysis Network in a trade hypothetical this week.
NBA Analysis Network’s trade has Memphis Grizzlies wing Dillon Brooks going to LA in exchange for more players
I’d like to kick this off by making one thing as clear as physically possible — I did not come up with this trade. If you’re going to go after somebody for this hypothetical on social media, please direct your anger toward NBA Analysis Network, the site that came up with this. That said the sports blog usually does a good job, though I disagree with this hypothetical.
Here’s the Memphis Grizzlies trade hypothetical that NBA Analysis Net drew up this time.
I’ll start with this. As a Grizzlies fan, if this deal happened, I would probably cry within ten minutes of reading it.
In fairness, the person who came up with this probably doesn’t cover the Grizzlies as closely as I do. That said, when I look at this deal, I see Memphis trading away an extremely promising future player in exchange for nothing noteworthy.
If Memphis was to trade away Dillon Brooks, they’d have to receive a boatload in return. A seven and eight-point per-game duo would not even begin to cover the value that Brooks has brought to the Memphis Grizzlies. The 25-year old former Oregon Duck is the heart and soul of the team that wears Beale Street Blue, which is why sending him away for a couple of role players and a pair of second-round picks seems ridiculous.
Even on the offensive end, which is thought of as a weak point in his game, Brooks averages more points than Kennard and Mann combined with over 17 per contest.
If you’re a Clippers fan, you’d want to jump on this trade immediately if it was presented. Not only would you be getting out of Luke Kennard’s bad contract, but you’d be picking up one of the highest-value players in the league. Brooks’s presence on the Clippers would give them the most stacked wing position in recent memory.
At any given moment on the court, there would be no proper matchup for either Brooks, Leonard, or George, especially if you want to score on the Clippers. This would be an extremely odd trade that would send ripples through the entire NBA. The Clippers would have four steals per game between their three players, making them impossible to get into a rhythm against.
More than it would be beneficial for the Clippers, this trade would be extremely disruptive for anybody the came up against Los Angeles. All bets would be off.
Thankfully for Grizzlies fans, however, this trade would never happen. Even as a stepping-off point, this one seems out of reach for both sides.